That's the lifespan of the Robinson's-May building facing Broadway at Westfield's Horton Plaza shopping center.

The demolition of the candy-colored, Post-Modern confection by architect Jon Jerde began in November, but it takes only 31 seconds in a time-lapse video.

Horton Plaza time-lapse video

The video will be screened at a special public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Westin Gaslamp hotel at First Avenue and E Street, where Councilmen Todd Gloria and Kevin Faulconer, who have both represented downtown, will be joined by Kimberly Brewer, vice president of development of Westfield, to discuss the demolition and what comes next.

The building opened in 1985 as a Robinson's department store along with rest of Horton Plaza after a 13-year redevelopment planning effort (and $40 million in public investment).

But as tastes changed, the store closed and Planet Hollywood restaurant replaced it in 1995. That business, too, proved, only temporary and since its closure in 2001, the building went through a variety of uses.

Under a deal between the city and Westfield, the property will be added to historic Horton Plaza park, the one with the tiled fountain that faces the U.S. Grant Hotel. The $13.5 million redo will bring in kiosks, amphitheater seating, special lighting, a new fountain and landscaping, and restoration of the park and old fountain to their 1910 look, designed by famed San Diego architect Irving J. Gill.

Mark Caro, senior planner and landscape architect at Civic San Diego which is overseeing the redevelopment, said the expanded plaza should be ready by the end of next year. Bids will go out in May or June and if they exceed the project estimate, some features might have to be cut back or funded privately, Caro said.

In a twist from the usual practice, Westfield, not the city's parks department, will maintain the plaza and program activities there for the next 25 years.